Ritz breaks US 10 mile record...in a workout.

For those of you who make alligations of PED use all the time with no evidence other than running fast and improving, than you picked the wrong sport to be a fan of. This is the whole point of running. Honestly, if you can not trust any runner moving to the next level, then why do you even care about the track? Please, just pick a different sport to follow because you seem to like sh*ting all over everything more than the sport itself and you are ruining it for the rest of us.

les run wrote:

We Americans are spread across multiple groups actually

- The Give-a-Shit and Pride-Possessor groups would not have made this mistake. Sadly, their populations are dropping fast.

- Anyone asserting that 62m is one-tenth of a kilometer comes from the aggregate of the Too-Stupid, Fine-with-Sloppy, Who-Cares, and Metrically-Challenged groups. Their numbers are soaring daily.

Who are you kidding? Nobody other than pseudo-intellectuals ever cared about the metric system in the USA. Metric snobs, like you, often have membership in other groups like the American Literacy Council:

some performance-altering drugs depress mood. hence, it's not idiotic to cite a good mood (and surprise) as A reason, not a definitive reason, to think he's clean.

i'm telling you, having been around salazar, the distance was probably measured 12 times. the guy is obsessive regarding this kind of stuff. i hope that DR hasn't overdone it too soon, however. it is easy to leave a race in a training run, rather than where it counts. i am thinking right around 61 minutes for him, right around 4-5th.

Forrestchild wrote:

Roughly good math, but please, a tenth of a kilometre is what, a 62 metres? Jesus Chr... were you sleeping during the middle school? A tenth of a kilometre is 100m (1km = 1000m). Besides, half marathon is 1/2 of the marathon distance which is 42 195 m, thus it is 21 097,5 (usually rounded up to 21 100 m), with the addition of 21 m in order to meet IAAF and AIMS measuring standards.

Man, you Americans are really metrically challenged.

Dougie's just special, he's always had trouble with even basic logic and common sense.

As a Canadian who has observed the American Hype machine wreak its havoc on young athletes over the decades, I would have to say that Mr. Salazar may not be acting in his athletes' best interests. I think that publicly declaring that Kara Goucher was in world record shape may have predicated a choke.

I am going to guess that this reporter has been fed training information by Salazar rather than by Ritzenheim. The self-confidence of Haile, Kenenisa & Usain is considerably different than the external pressure of expectation applied by a coach.

Surely every single reader of these boards knows full well (even though optimistic & maybe patriotic as they may well be) that training times do not directly translate into performance times.

Obviously there is economic pressure on Salazar to get press for his athletes and himself to ensure continued funds. I admit it is an awkward position to be in. However, I think that a coach should be a little less noteworthy. Look at the caution that Renato Canova takes when he discusses future events. As for Haile & Kenenisa, I would not even know who is credited as their "coach" but even Jos Hermens - their agent - a previous world-record holding athlete himself manages to stay very much in the background to allow his athletes to establish their own positions in athletic history.

I may be entirely wrong ascribing the blame to Mr. Salazar. It could be journalists hiding around trackside looking for a story. But I think that revealing training results before an event is like a poker player flashing his cards - not strategically smart.

Flagpole wrote:

As I've long said, his level of talent is not surpassed by any American born runner ever.

Not true.

Certainly talent-laden but the lad was running 80-90mpw in HS.

Marc Davis and Webb come immediately to mind as guys with more natural ability than Ritzenhein.

I don't think it is that worrisome or unbelievable that Ritz time-trialed such a fast 10 miler. In longer races like that, it is sometimes easier to solo because you get to pick the day, the weather, and the course and don't have to worry about racing. If he had done the whole thing on the track, I wouldn't consider it that unbelievable given his recent performances since the track is so much faster than the roads for long stuff as you can perfectly nail the pace.

Nevermind that Rupp ran 13:37 as a prep, and one Jim Ryun was running 3:51 on cinder tracks as a junior back in the 1960s. Ritz is one of the very best, no doubt, but he has been on EVERYONE's radar screen forever. The moderators of this forum predicted him as the first ever non-African born American to break the 27:00 barrier way back when, and his third place at world junior cross behind Bekele was an eye-opener prior to that. And now you have Fernandez and Derrick, who, at least in terms of time, have surpassed the AJRs for 5k. And I don't think they ran as many miles as Ritz. It's subjective to be sure. personally, I think Webb has the wheels to go sub 12:50 if he really focused on it.

You picked the wrong thread to chime in on, my illiterate friend, if you think that "running fast and improving" are ever the only evidence cited.

Go Away wrote:

For those of you who make alligations of PED use all the time with no evidence other than running fast and improving, than you picked the wrong sport to be a fan of. This is the whole point of running. Honestly, if you can not trust any runner moving to the next level, then why do you even care about the track? Please, just pick a different sport to follow because you seem to like sh*ting all over everything more than the sport itself and you are ruining it for the rest of us.

Give me a break wrote:

Nobody other than pseudo-intellectuals ever cared about the metric system in the USA.

So now it's only pseudo-intellectuals that know that 1000/10!=62 ???

I think you've proven my point.

You know, all of the cynicism surrounding Salazar MAY have had its justification in the past before drug-use and performance enhancement and blood-doping were really scrutinized, though nobody has provided anything but HEARSAY. The most I've ever heard from some Colorado athletes, and, again it's HEARSAY is that Salazar has sometimes had his athletes injected with some type of iron bullets to defray iron-depletion. And, the thyroid stuff... well again hearsay. If there are true deficiencies, then I see no problem with it in terms of legality, though not everyone has access to it. On the other hand, I personally think the synthetic high/low living situation is borderline; again, not illegal, but certainly a situation with higher hurdles to clear for the non-Nike runner living in Portland.

But, there's no doubt that a lot of Ritz's "recent" success is owing to his multiple years of marathon base and long threshold running. And, frankly, you do what you can to otherwise level the playing field as long as it's not illegal, unless you are part of the peloton in cycling, that is...

Lorne Morrow wrote:

Surely every single reader of these boards knows full well (even though optimistic & maybe patriotic as they may well be) that training times do not directly translate into performance times.

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

ps: Did you ever hear of "The Seattle Seven"??

les run wrote:

Give me a break wrote:

Nobody other than pseudo-intellectuals ever cared about the metric system in the USA.

So now it's only pseudo-intellectuals that know that 1000/10!=62 ???

I think you've proven my point.

I said cared, not know. Can't process the difference, genius? I think you've proven MY point.

how for away is the world half marathon champs?

because even if ritz did run this 10 miler harder than he shoulve have, he probably still has enough time to recover from it and still be in good shape to compete at the world half marathon champs.

also, if he did 9 x 4:21 1600m w/ 400m jog, well, 4:20 pace equates to a sub-27 10k. i don't think this 10-miler is anything to be alarmed about. i don't think he left his race in this workout. i think salazar has just been a good change for ritzenhein, and i think things are going to work out fine.

a lot of people probably would've said that running a 5k in 13:44 at altitude(St. Moritz) days before a 10k would've taken the race out of him, but then he ran 27:22, so I think Salazar knows what he's doing with Ritzenhein.

i'd say there's a 70% chance ritzenhein finishes in the top 5 at the world HM champs.

Never mind that "nevermind" is a made-up word.

Sagarin wrote:

Nevermind that Rupp ran 13:37 as a prep, and one Jim Ryun was running 3:51 on cinder tracks as a junior back in the 1960s. Ritz is one of the very best, no doubt, but he has been on EVERYONE's radar screen forever. The moderators of this forum predicted him as the first ever non-African born American to break the 27:00 barrier way back when, and his third place at world junior cross behind Bekele was an eye-opener prior to that. And now you have Fernandez and Derrick, who, at least in terms of time, have surpassed the AJRs for 5k. And I don't think they ran as many miles as Ritz. It's subjective to be sure. personally, I think Webb has the wheels to go sub 12:50 if he really focused on it.

got coherence? wrote:

Never mind that "nevermind" is a made-up word.

]

Who the hell cares?

Aren't all words "made up," if we're all being dicks about this?

My butt itches?